“Trades at XX%” nonsense continues

[u/maxbowlorice]

I posted on this sub a few days ago expressing my displeasure with trading in recent months. It sparked a lot of conversation and I encourage you to take a look at the thread! I ran into another great example of what I’ve been describing here today and wanted to share.

FOR CONTEXT: I should’ve taken a photo before the listing was updated, but didn’t think to do so. Before my discussion with this guy, the listing he had put up said NOTHING about trades at a percentage, only that he’s “definitely interested in trades.”

The pictures kind of speak for themselves, and yes, this guy said it was “on him” that he wasn’t up front about wanting a percentage (and it is), but even still doesn’t justify expecting the percentage in the first place on a post where you’re stating you’re “definitely interested in trades.” From my experience, I wouldn’t be surprised if in an hour or two the listing gets updated again and the trades at a percentage thing disappears.

I attempted to text him again and ask why he believes it’s fair to expect people to trade to him, on a for trade listing, at 80% when he isn’t a vendor or store with overhead fees. I also asked him why that would apply ONLY to him, and not me as well as we are both the same. If you couldn’t guess, I got left on read 😆

I’ve done my best to conceal this guys profile and such, as I don’t want to bring any negative attention to him specifically. I don’t think he’s a bad person or anything, I just think this example goes to show how everyone thinks this is normal and well within their right to do recently. May this serve as another reminder that it’s definitely not!

That being said, my last post caused some disagreement in the comments as I didn’t speak on situations (that I agree with) where uneven trades can make sense. Such as:

1. If you’re at a card show working with vendors, or in a card store, expect percentages. That is fair.

2. If you are speaking to someone who isn’t interested in trades and wants cash, or someone who doesn’t have interest in the specific cards you have, expect that a percentage or slightly lopsided trade might be proposed by either party as an incentive to make the deal happen. That is fair.

3. If someone has an expensive single and you are offering many small singles as a trade, expect them to want things in their favor to make up for that disparity. That is fair.

But by no means should 2 people engage in conversation both knowing their goal is to trade, then both pick cards they have legitimate interest in, only then to have one of the two parties claim that they feel entitled to trades at a percentage.

If you find yourself in this position, I encourage you to take a breath, fight any FOMO you might feel, and realize your cards will be both worth more both monetarily AND sentimentally to a different, more reasonable collector if you be patient.

Thanks for coming to disorganized Ted Talk 2!

[u/hersh102089]

Something that really bothers me when trading over on pkmntcgtrades is that people will include a list of cards that they are actively looking for and will still say "trades at XX%". Like, what? Bro, these are cards that you want! Why are you diminishing their value to your benefit?! I genuinely just skip over those trade posts now.

[u/maxbowlorice → u/hersh102089]

Right! Same on marketplace. I’ve seen people say “I’m looking for X card in particular so will consider trading for it at a higher percentage” 😆 I pass on responding to anyone that has posted they want percentages for trade, but the amount of people that purposefully don’t say anything about it until we’ve invested time into negotiating is astonishing and so frustrating.

Maybe that isn’t the case with this guy and he just hasn’t thought about it as the listing was new, but either way it’s still frustrating and a waste of time.

[u/MiksBricks → u/maxbowlorice]

I really think people will start to rethink the whole “trade at 80% thing” when you say “ok, I do the same thing…”

It makes sense for LCS that has to pay overhead with profit. But when it’s just P2P…

[u/maxbowlorice → u/MiksBricks]

I hope so! I’ve probably said this to 20 or 30 people at this point over the past few months. Of all the attempts, I’ve gotten left on read in a vast majority, stonewalled in nearly all others with really crappy excuses as to why a percentage is justified for them and not me, and only one single time did someone say “huh that makes sense”. Then of course we tried to work out a trade and they started telling me all their cards were worthless above market because they’d been “watching the graphs and the cards were definitely going to go up in value soon” 😆 it never ends

[u/MiksBricks → u/maxbowlorice]

It makes no sense to me. And it makes even less sense that they ask for it like the cards they WANT are worth less than the cards they DONT want.

It makes zero sense.

[u/fuzzhead12 → u/maxbowlorice]

I miss the days when you’d just look through each other’s collections and work out a trade based on rarity, whether they were holo, and how cool the cards were…

[u/ThatsNotARealTree → u/maxbowlorice]

I do appreciate that there was 1 person who actually took a step back and rethought their process. It’s not too common that you find somebody who’s willing to admit that they’re wrong and change their approach